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Boeing signed the agreement today to deliver 12 F- 15 fighter planes to Singapore in the next three to four years, the city-state’s Ministry of Defense said.

The agreement also includes an option for Singapore to buy another eight aircraft at a future date, the ministry said today in an e-mailed statement, without giving the value of the contract. The planes, which are configured to Singapore’s specifications, will replace the island nation’s A-4SU Skyhawks and operate as its latest fleet of fighter jets, it added.

“They will be equipped with sophisticated avionics and weapons systems and will give the Republic of Singapore Air Force significantly better system-level capability,” the ministry said. “The acquisition of these advanced fighters marks a milestone in the transformation of the air force.”

Singapore, which has the largest defense budget in Southeast Asia, has been modernizing its defense forces amid the global threat of terrorism. Boeing is boosting foreign military sales as defense spending in the U.S. slows.

In September, Singapore said Boeing has won an order for an unspecified number of F-15s. The city-state earlier placed the F-15, Dassault’s Rafale and Eurofighter GmbH’s Typhoon on a shortlist for possible purchase. It dropped the Typhoon in April.

Felicia Tang, a Defense Ministry spokeswoman, declined to say the value of the contract. As many as 20 F-15s could be worth $1 billion to $1.5 billion, analysts have said.

Boeing has produced more than 1,500 F-15s during the past three decades for countries including, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Israel. The Super Skyhawk was made by Douglas Aircraft Co., a unit of McDonnell Douglas Corp., a planemaker Boeing acquired in 1997. Production of the plane ended in 1975.